When: Sunday is the 11th anniversary of the notorious Avalanche-Canucks game in Vancouver in which Todd Bertuzzi attacked Moore and the Avalanche forward suffered fractured vertebrae, abrasions and a concussion. It was the last of Moore’s 69 NHL games, all with Colorado, and 57 of them came that season, when he seemed to be gaining a foothold in the league as a third- and fourth-line forward. Bertuzzi played nine more seasons, with the Canucks, Red Wings, Panthers, Ducks and Flames.

Cody McLeod will step into Nathan MacKinnon’s spot on the top line. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

In the wake of the Avalanche disclosure that Nathan MacKinnon has a broken foot and will be out six to eight weeks, missing the rest of the regular season, this should be pointed out for form sake: In the case of an Avalanche miraculous closing run, six weeks would take him to April 17, or during the first round of the playoffs, and eight weeks would about coincide with the start of the second round.

The attitude in the dressing room, of course, is that this is another bump, but that the playoffs still are attainable and the wording of the Avalanche announcement — phrasing it that there still could be more hockey for MacKinnon to play — is in line with that. Same thing, perhaps, with the possible return of defenseman Erik Johnson who skated for the first time Friday following his arthroscopic knee procedure in late January. Common sense might seem to dictate that if the Avs are destined to miss the playoffs, Johnson might as well remain out of the lineup, and it will be interesting to see where things stand if he’s at least physically close to being able to play in two more weeks.

Avalanche center Matt Duchene talks about beating buddy Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 on Wednesday night in Denver. Duchene and teammate Nathan MacKinnon train with Crosby in the summer. Crosby was pointless, minus-1 and didn’t produce a shot in 19:19 against the Avs:

The Avalanche surprisingly had an relatively intense hour-long practice Thursday, despite coming off a 3-1 win over visiting Pittsburgh on Wednesday and not playing again until Saturday at Columbus. The Avs will have a brief skate Friday morning before traveling to Ohio. Colorado concludes a consecutive-night road trip Sunday at Minnesota. I’ll be there, and I think we can all expect a whale of a hockey game. More on that from the Avs’ perspective in the coming days.

Avs coach Patrick Roy said goalie Semyon Varlamov is scheduled to make his 21st and 22nd consecutive starts against the Blue Jackets and Wild. The Avs’ record for consecutive starts is held by Craig Anderson (23 in 2010), but if Varlamov remains healthy, he will break it. Roy said backup Reto Berra will probably get a game or two during the last 18 games. As for Calvin Pickard, the guy with the .936 NHL save percentage this season, he’ll finish the year at Lake Erie of the AHL unless Varlamov or Berra are injured.

“I like the way he’s been practicing. I think we’re going in the right direction with him and I think he deserves a chance to play,” Roy said of Berra (3.39 GAA, .890 SP).

Avs forward Joey Hishon, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2010 (17th overall), made his NHL regular-season debut Wednesday against the Pens. Hishon, 23, had two shots and two hits in 8:05 on the fourth line. He was not on the power play.

“It was good. It was a lot of fun. I thought I did what I had to do, and work hard,” Hishon told me Thursday. “But I have to build on it every single game. It’s a tough league to play in. Guys are really strong, really fast.”

About facing Crosby and company, Hishon said: “I couldn’t stop looking at Sid in warmups because I grew up idolizing him. It was cool to see him out there. But as soon as the game started it was business as usual, just another player out there.”

Footnotes. No update on defenseman Erik Johnson, who is six weeks out from undergoing minor knee surgery but has not been seen skating (besides taking the on-ice team picture Wednesday). The Avs originally said EJ would miss 3-8 weeks, because it’s a better way of saying “out indefinitely.” But indefinitely appears to be more accurate right now. … In addition to winning a car for a fan by scoring 13 seconds into the second period Wednesday, Jarome Iginla’s power-play goal was his 173rd, tying Raymond Bourque for 27th all-time. Bourque has the most PPGs among defensemen in the history of the game. Iginla’s 20th goal of the season also gave him 16 20-goal campaigns, second most among active players behind Jaromir Jagr (18). Next up on the career power-play goals list is No. 26 Michel Goulet (178), the former Quebec Nordiques great.

Milan Hejduk, who played his entire 1,020-game NHL career with Colorado, will present Alex Tanguay with gifts during the pregame ceremony. Here’s Tanguay going into his 1,000th career NHL regular-season game:

As expected in recent days — despite all the weeks of reasoned speculation and rumors circulating predicting the contrary — Ryan O’Reilly remained with the Avalanche when the trading deadline passed Monday.

“It’s nice not to be somewhere else and to be able to focus on playing hockey and trying to get in the playoffs here,” O’Reilly said after practice Tuesday. “It’s nice to put that behind me.”

Cody McLeod instigates a fight with Charlie Coyle near the end of the game on Feb. 28, 2015, at Pepsi Center. (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

The NHL this morning announced it had fined Gabriel Landeskog and Cody McLeod for their actions at the end of the Avalanche’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota.

McLeod was fined $3,091.40 for entering the game during a line change “for the purpose of starting an altercation” with 8.1 seconds left in the game, when he checked Minnesota center Mikael Granlund and then fought Wild forward Charlie Coyle. The NHL fined Landeskog $5,000 for throwing a punch at Minnesota forward Mikko Koivu, while both players were on their teams’ benches, with 3.3 seconds left in the game.

My non-homer views on this are on the record here and here, and I respect the right of expression and even understand the perspective of those who have disagreed with me.

In two minor-league trades Monday, the Avalanche dealt defenseman Karl Stollery to San Jose and Lake Erie teammate Michael Sgarbossa, a forward, to Anaheim. In return, the Avs got forward Freddie Hamilton from the Sharks and defenseman Mat Clark from the Ducks. Both Hamilton and Clark will report to Lake Erie.

In another trade that was later confirmed by Colorado, the Avs acquired 2009 first-round draft pick Jordan Caron and a 2016 sixth-round draft pick from Boston for forwards Max Talbot and Paul Carey. Caron, 24, has played 11 games with the Bruins this season and 132 in his NHL career.

Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog said there’s more to the story in what angered Cody McLeod late in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota. McLeod fought the Wild’s Charlie Coyle after an center-ice faceoff with less than 4 seconds to play in the game. I have yet to find a video that supports this, but Landeskog said Coyle picked the fight by slashing McLeod in the back of the legs before the faceoff.

“I don’t think it’s anything that should be blown out of proportion,” Landeskog told me after practice. “I think Cody, like the rest of us, was frustrated and played hard out there. And Coyle was standing in the back of him, slashing the back of his legs, and Cody turned around and does his job — like he would to anybody. It doesn’t matter who it is, if somebody is slashing you in the back of the legs, you assume they want a piece of you. And Cody took care of Coyle … Cody did what he had to do, and a lot of us would do the same thing. So I agree with Cody there. That’s the way I saw it. I haven’t seen it on video after.”

The Avs play at the Wild Sunday in the fifth and final regular-season teams between the rivals. Minnesota is 4-0 and has allowed just one goal.

Defenseman Jan Hejda said he had “heard a lot of stuff from the media, but nothing has changed in the last few days. . . We’ll see what happens. It’s not up to me anymore. I’m just kind of waiting and hoping that I will be an Avalanche player in an hour.”

Why did he want to stay with Colorado rather than go to a team more likely to be in the playoffs?

“First of all, I still believe we can make the playoffs,” Hejda said. “Lately, even that last game against Minnesota, we played better. We just need to start scoring goals, and I believe that’s coming. Second, this was my choice, I chose the Avalanche as my team (signing as a free agent in 2011) and I want to win a Stanley Cup for this team.”

Daniel Briere, 37, was not traded as a pending UFA. His 307-goal career will likely end in Colorado:

In the final seconds of Colorado’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota last night, Avalanche winger Cody McLeod stirred it up, jostling with Mikael Granlund and ending up fighting with Charlie Coyle. He drew an unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct. I already had filed my early story and was on the way down to the dressing room at the time and caught the end of the milling around from the ice-level portal, so I’m not going to claim to have seen or watched all of it from beginning to end.

The link above is to my recent feature on McLeod. I like him a lot and respect his blue-collar work ethic. But what happened there was another example of what I referred to as “suspect” aspects of his game and his rationale for fighting, though the Avalanche point of view — unspoken perhaps — is that it was a “standing up” response (an indirect one) to the Sean Bergenheim hit on Nathan MacKinnon in the middle of the third period that left the Avalanche teenager with an apparent broken nose.

The game was over, no point was made, and it just added to rather than mitigated the Avalanche embarrassment.

The Penguins’ Beau Bennett handles the puck in front of Brandon Saad and Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks in the third period during the game at Consol Energy Center on January 21, 2015, in Pittsburgh. (Justin K. Aller, Getty Images)

Spotlight on… Beau Bennett, right wing, Penguins

When: The Avalanche hosts Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the second consecutive 8 p.m. start time at the Pepsi Center.

What’s up: Bennett, a California-born forward from the University of Denver, via the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, had the mumps and missed the first game against the Avs on Dec. 18 in Pittsburgh, a 1-0 overtime victory for the Penguins. Bennett has overcome illness and injury this season and is working his way back to a top-six forward for one of the NHL’s best teams.

Because the Avalanche didn’t have a morning skate or availability, Patrick Roy met with me a little over two hours before Colorado’s game with Minnesota Saturday night.

Here’s what he said when I asked him why Nathan MacKinnon had played so sparingly — he essentially was benched — in the third period and overtime of the Avalanche’s 5-4 shootout win at Dallas Friday: “I must have lost him in the rotation. Sometimes those things happen, you know.”

Nicely, I said I wasn’t sure I believed him. MacKinnon played 100 seconds in the third period and overtime. Patrick Roy isn’t “losing” Nathan MacKinnon, the player he sought to land for the Quebec Remparts when MacKinnon was 15 and balking at reporting to Baie-Comeau, who took him in the QMJHL draft, and the player he felt so strongly was the right choice at No. 1 overall in the 2013 draft.

Let’s face it: Unless there’s a minor injury involved, and that seems extremely unlikely, Roy almost certainly was protecting MacKinnon in the sense that he didn’t want this to blow up and wanted to handle it in private. The most likely scenario here is that the coach was upset with a lack of attention to detail in all areas of the ice. The virtual same scenario unfolded earlier in the season and Roy said pretty much the same thing.Read more…

DALLAS — Avalanche teenager Nathan MacKinnon was benched for much of the third period in what turned into a dramatic come-from-behind 5-4 shootout win over the Stars. Game story is here. As I wrote on Twitter postgame — after talking to Avs players and coaches — the frustrations with producing an online story BEFORE I go downstairs is severe. But it’s not just our paper; it’s in every NHL, NFL and NBA market. We are required to file a “running” gamer at the buzzer, so typically we’re too busy looking at the computer screen than the game in front of us. In a game like Friday — five third-period goals, changing momentum — I didn’t see much of the game, focusing on the online game story. Thus, I didn’t see that MacKinnon was bench by coach Patrick Roy, which is why I didn’t ask Roy about MacKinnon’s absence that some thought was caused by injury.

Sob story aside, Roy said he’s going with the same lines on Saturday night in Denver against Minnesota that he finished with Friday, meaning MacKinnon is not in the top six.
“Yes, (Cody) McLeod played really well with Jarome (Iginla and center Matt Duchene) and (Max) Talbot played really well with (Gabe) Landeskog and (Ryan) O’Reilly,” Roy told me.

Avalanche GM Joe Sakic, coach Patrick Roy and his staff played shinny Friday at the American Airlines Center after the morning skates. Forward Paul Carey, who will be scratched against the Stars, and backup goalie Reto Berra also participated:

DALLAS — Feels like New York here. Cold, snow and traffic. Yes, it’s a snow day in Big D. Accidents all over the streets, schools are letting out early, Stars players told to avoid traveling to their suburban homes between the morning skate and the game — all because an inch or two of snow. But the game will go on, and it’s a big one between teams with 63 points — eight behind Minnesota for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. The morning skate report is here.

Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog got in his third NHL fight of the season and fifth of his career Tuesday at Nashville. In a big-blow scrap that began as a response to Landeskog’s crushing forecheck hit on Roman Josi, Landeskog fared well against the bigger and more seasoned Preds D Shea Weber:

Freelance game story from Colorado’s 5-2 loss at Nashville is here. The Avalanche is off Wednesday and will practice Thursday at a suburban Dallas rink. I fly to Dallas in the morning and will report from practice, Friday’s morning skate at the American Airlines Center and the ensuing game against the Stars.

As it stands, forward Daniel Briere will be the only extra Av against Dallas. On Wednesday, the team reassigned defenseman Stefan Elliott to Lake Erie of the American League. Elliott struggled mightily against the Preds and his demotion likely had something to do with his waiver status. So right now, expect D Zach Redmond to return to the lineup Friday.

The Avs host Minnesota on Saturday in their last game before Monday’s NHL trade deadline. Colleague Terry Frei has the game against the Wild, as he and I swap teams over the weekend. Terry has the Denver Pioneers’ big NCHC tilt against Miami on Friday in Denver, and I’ll do the series finale Saturday. Avs GM Joe Sakic is expected to meet with local media Saturday, likely before the game against Minnesota, and discuss trade-deadline issues.

At a minimum, you can bet the Avs will look at moving pending unrestricted free agent D Jan Hejda to a playoff team as a rental. Hejda is a good shot-blocker who could provide depth for a playoff team, and in return the Avs could get a prospect and/or draft pick. I can’t see Colorado re-signing Hejda, 36, as it re-tools its D for next season. His departure opens $3.25 million in cap room. Briere could also be moved for many of the same reasons. He’s a pending UFA at age 37, and his cap hit is $4 million. But Briere — a proven clutch playoff scorer — can’t get in a lineup for a team that’s unofficially in playoff-mode right now, so the takers figure to be few.

Ryan O’Reilly? He’s Colorado’s first-line center right now, playing between Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon. O’Reilly is unquestionably sought by playoff-bound teams, but moving him to one of those by Monday will not get you a first-pairing D. Unless the Avs can get a top prospect and first-round draft pick for O’Reilly, I’m betting he finishes the season in Colorado.

Whether it’s this spring or this summer, the Avs will re-build their D. But it could be subtle changes — one or two additions — given the expected training camp excitement over young draftees Chris Bigras, Mason Geertsen, Kyle Wood, Will Butcher and others. Yes, those four are 20-under and might be years away from being an NHL regular. But they certainly add intrigue to how the Avs go about things for next season and beyond.

Teenager Nathan MacKinnon put three shots on net and becomes the youngest Avalanche player with a hat trick. Game story here.

Avs defenseman Nate Guenin was plus-2 in 20:18, including 3:51 on the penalty kill (Lightning went 0-of-3 on power play). Forget Guenin’s zero shots; he blocked three. Ideal night for the very affable Steel City dude from Ohio State — who fared well in a fight while at the end of his shift against a much more experienced tough guy:

Guenin, 32, got in his first career NHL regular-season fight late in the second period against the well-traveled and highly respected Brenden Morrow, 36. Morrow wanted Guenin to pay for a questionable hit on Nikita Kucherov near the Tampa Bay bench. As the video shows, Guenin delivered his forearm-shiver check on Kucherov and it looks like it was a punch to the head. After further review, it looks like he didn’t connect with the head. But Morrow didn’t like it and, from what seen and been told, changed with Kucherov and went after Guenin — after a puck battle in the corner.

Video doesn’t support the Kucherov-for-Morrow change, but here’s what Guenin told me: “I hit whoever it was (Kucherov) and (Morrow) came off for him, a line change, and asked me to go right away. I was so (freaking) tired. Morrow is a heart and soul guy, so I knew what he was doing. He had to do that. I get it. I was just so tired, just gassed. It’s not like he jumped me. He asked me and I was just like, ‘Dude, (jeez) whatever you want to do.'”

Colleague Terry Frei and I don’t see eye-to-eye with hockey fighting, and that works. We agree to disagree. So the following statement is mine and mine alone: I like what Morrow did for his teammate and team. At the same time, I like Guenin’s toughness and response — on the ice and afterward in the locker room. Guenin’s forearm shiver is trouble. He either accidentally connects to the head and gets a penalty, or looks like he’s going after the head and infuriates the opposing bench. If he continues to use the high-swinging forearm check, he should — and will — expect a physical response from a guy like Morrow.

You all know I cover college hockey too. Love it. Going back and forth from the NCAA and NHL is a real treat. I believe every solid hockey writer should be intertwined in the amateur and pro games. Terry Frei — who has significant experience in major-junior — is all that. But I HATE cheap shots in the college game from guys who hide behind the harsh NCAA fighting rules (and gladiator cages/fish bowls). If Guenin was still playing for the Buckeyes, he might throw that forearm every game and not get in one fight all season. So he’s either in the penalty box or driving the opponent mad, or both. Hockey players never forget, and built-up frustration is dangerous.

But with Guenin and Kucherov/Morrow, it’s over. Guenin got his big hit. Kucherov (who scored Tampa’s fifth goal and had two points) is thankful he has a teammate like Morrow. And Morrow is Morrow. He’s a hockey player, a “heart and soul guy” as Guenin said. Nothing lingers.

When: Tuesday against the Avalanche at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

What’s up: Rinne probably will be in the net when the Avs make their season’s second visit to Music City.

Background: For the revitalized Predators, Rinne has been stingy in posting the second-best goals-against average and save percentage to Montreal’s Carey Price in the NHL going into the weekend. Rinne was out for three weeks with a minor knee injury before returning to the crease Feb. 5 against Anaheim, and although he allowed five goals on 40 shots in a loss to the Islanders on Thursday, he mostly has been strong since. The Avs faced backups Carter Hutton and Marek Mazanec in late January, getting three points in the home-and-home set over four days. Rinne will be more formidable.

Frei’s take: Price and Rinne will duel for the Vezina Trophy, but also are candidates for the Hart Trophy.

Paul Carey against the Blackhawks late last season (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

After arriving back from Chicago during the night, and once it was determined Snowmageddon would be at least delayed, the Avalanche practiced Saturday afternoon at Family Sports Center. Colorado next faces the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday at 5 p.m. in the Pepsi Center.

“The only reason why we’re on the ice today is because we’re not going to skate tomorrow morning,” Patrick Roy said. “If it would have been a 7 o’clock game, I don’t think we would be here today. The fact that tomorrow morning, we’re not even going to be going to the rink, so I thought it would be good for us to go for less than 30 minutes, 25 minutes, just move our pick, move our feet, to make sure we’re ready for a strong game tomorrow.”

Roy is reluctant to look ahead, but I asked him what the 4-1 victory at Chicago Friday could mean for this team.Read more…

On Thursday at Avalanche practice I was working on a Friday feature about righties and lefties in the Avs’ locker room, and how the righties — the longtime minority in the NHL — are the better goal scorers (13 of the 21 all-time greatest snipers are righties, including Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy, the only ones in the top 21 who didn’t play in 1,000 games). The right-shooting Jarome Iginla leads Colorado with 18 goals and he’s among the top 20 all-time.

Avs center Matt Duchene and others are very adamant about the righties/lefties subject, with Duchene saying he wishes he was a right shot, the side he throws a ball. Same for John Mitchell, who says big-bomb righties Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Tyler Seguin and others have a big power-play advantage because most of their teammates are lefties and the power play is played on the right half-wall, and they go to town with the weakside open looks. Nathan MacKinnon, Daniel Briere and Zach Redmond do almost everything from the right side, although MacKinnon has a dominant left leg for soccer and Briere eats with his left hand. Jan Hejda says his hockey coaches in the Czech Republic would hand a kid a stick, and whatever hand the kid took it from would be the top hand on his stick. But Hejda doesn’t like that method, and others such as golf teachers forcing left-shooting hockey players to go lefty on the course. Ryan O’Reilly says he’s a lefty because his older brother was a lefty, and Cal O’Reilly became a lefty because Wayne Gretzky was a lefty.Read more…

A three-goal second period for the Los Angeles Kings leads to a 4-1 win for the visitors at the Pepsi Center. The Avalanche put 43 shots on goalie Jonathan Quick in another solid offensive performance, but the power play goes 0-of-3.

Bottom line: Among the 14 Western Conference teams, the Avs are one of three to have not reached 60 points. Colorado (59 points) is only ahead of Arizona (47) and Edmonton (44).

Matt Duchene politely corrected me in saying the Kings’ second and third goals were not a result of an Avalanche defensive breakdowns. Tyler Toffoli’s drive to the net resulted in the puck bouncing in off Semyon Varlamov’s pad. And Dustin Brown’s easy back-door tap-in goal that made it 3-1 came on a 6-on-5 attack. “You can’t cover everyone in that situation,” Duchene said:

Noteworthy: Colorado reached 40 shots for the fifth time this season, and the 43 against the Kings were the third most. The Avs had 48 on Oct. 24 against Vancouver and 47 versus Dallas on Nov. 29. … Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov made his 14th consecutive start, and No. 1 star Quick made his 13th straight start in net. … Avs captain Gabe Landeskog extended his goal-scoring streak to four games, tying Erik Johnson for the longest this season. … Center Ryan O’Reilly won 20-of-26 faceoffs, a career high. … The Kings won their sixth consecutive game.

Los Angeles Kings rookie Nick Shore was born in Denver and attended the University of Denver. He signed with the Kings (26-18-2) after his junior year in 2013. Shore, 22, will make his big-league debut against the Avalanche (24-22-11) at Pepsi Center, and play his seventh consecutive NHL game and 12th overall:

No lineup changes for the Avalanche against the defending Stanley Cup champions. More on that here.

Shore is expected to center L.A.’s fourth line, with wingers Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan. Shore grew up playing for the Littleton Hockey Association and Colorado Thunderbirds (triple-A) before joining the U.S. National Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. His parents David and Sarah, along with brothers Quentin and Baker and the majority of the DU hockey team, will be in attendance Wednesday. Quentin Shore is a junior at DU, and the third Shore boy to play for the Pioneers as an NHL draft pick. Quentin’s rights are owned by the Ottawa Senators. Drew Shore, 24, became the first DU product in 2009 and is currently playing for the Calgary Flames’ AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Flames. He was recently traded to Calgary from Florida, which drafted him 44th overall in 2009.

Here’s what Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said about Nick Shore: “He fits in well. He’s a good kid. He’s funny, he’s goofy, a good player and he fits well in our system. He’s a smart player on the ice and we need someone like that.”

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.